Chapter 5

Kakashi was well known for many things. His love of Icha Icha, his 'rivalry' with Gai, his skill in battle, his sharingan... There were many things that people knew about him. The only thing that people knew about him that no one really spoke of was his father, and the shame that drove the man to suicide.

To many, it was a surprise that Kakashi would even willingly bring the man up, to bet his sword away in some silly poker game with one of his students.

A lesser known fact about him, that of his usually incredible skill at poker, was currently the topic of whispers amongst the rumor-mongers and gossipers. Someone heard from a friend of a friend that Kakashi had LET Naruto win the poker game... To pass on the tradition of the sword? To show his approval of his student courting Gai's? No one knew, but theories were getting weirder and weirder (the latest was that Kakashi and Gai had gotten drunk, and decided to 'Unite the Teams', and that this was Kakashi's way of engaging Naruto to Tenten), and Kakashi was doing nothing to quell them.

Indeed... The man found them hilarious.

Thus we are presented with a rather unique situation, where Kakashi, pathologically late in everything that he did, stunned most of Konoha by presenting the newly repaired chakra blade to Naruto a mere 30 minutes after Naruto arrived back in Konoha.

Of course, none would be surprised that only one word was running through his mind at the time, repeated over and over even as he blushed and giggled perversely.

'Icha Icha Icha Icha Icha Icha...'

Hey, the man knows what he likes. Don't knock the books til ya read 'em.

So the scene was set, in the middle of the town, civilians and ninjas alike watching the village's soap opera continue.

Because Kakashi had the incredibly poor timing to arrive mere moments after Tenten glomped onto Naruto.

Jiraiya was trailing behind Kakashi, and Tsunade was following Jiraiya, both trying to watch the scene. Jiraiya with pen out and scribbling, Tsunade just confused about what the heck was going on. She had thought Jiraiya had been exaggerating the situation a bit, as he was wont to do from time to time.

But then she walks in on a good crowd of people surreptiously watching some girl with her hair up in buns tackle-hug her new pseudo-student/gambler.

Perhaps it was lucky for Naruto that Tenten didn't actually notice Tsunade yet... Who knows what the girl would do?

There were more and more people arriving, most wanting to know if Naruto had done the impossible yet again and had managed to bring ANOTHER sword home for Tenten.

One person, though, was upset by what she was seeing. Hinata had arrived a few moments before Kakashi had, and was stunned by Tenten apparently sexually assaulting Naruto in a way that Hinata could only dream of. The fact that it was a mere hug in no way stopped her from imagining where that hug could lead to, with Naruto hugging her back, and then kissing her, and then taking off his pants...

Yeah, Hinata stood quietly in a shady corner, blushing and poking her fingers together, mind traveling from one lewd thought to another in her slightly inebriated mental state.

Kurenai hadn't been quite as successful as she could have hoped, it seemed.

Watching Naruto's face cycle from shocked to confused to embarrassed... Hinata felt something in her mind click.

She needed to do something, before all hope was lost.

And an idea struck her with such force, that she decided to take a celebratory sip of sake for the sheer genius it possessed.

Now, to find Neji...

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"So, uh, now that I have the sword... Do you want to start the lessons?"

Naruto wasn't quite sure what was going on. All he did was mention that he brought that Tsunade woman back to the village with him, and then WHAM! he was on the ground with Tenten on top of him. He remembered seeing situations similar to this before, where girls would try to hug Sasuke... But Sasuke would always somehow dodge them.

'Damnit, Sasuke! I guess I have to train harder, if I can't even dodge this sort of thing!'

Poor Naruto... Not even realizing that dodging an attractive girl trying to hug you was NOT the correct course of action in this situation.

Tenten was similarly embarrassed, not quite sure what had come over her. It seemed as if Naruto was going out of his way to make every possible desire she might ever have had to be true... Now she would actually have the chance to measure herself against Tsunade! If the woman came back with Naruto, she might even be able to talk to her! This was great!

But then, Naruto mentioned training, and Tenten pulled herself together.

"Yeah, sure... That sounds good. How about we go over to the training ground..."

Tenten stood up, and pulled Naruto to his feet, and the two wandered off in the direction of the nearest training ground. The smiles and gossip of the villagers went unnoticed by Naruto, and went ignored by Tenten.

Both had more important things on their mind.

For Tenten, her mind had turned all business. Seeing the White Fang for the first time, she tried to decide what style it would be best suited for, and, with what she knew of Naruto, what style HE would be best suited for.

Naruto's mind... well, it was less focused.

"I thought we already decided that we would use ninjutsu, Naruto?"

"Bah! We have another kickass sword! Now we can impress Sakura-chan with that!"

Naruto was thinking long-term, something people would normally not expect of him. Then again, those who knew him wouldn't be all that surprised by his current mental path.

'Stronger ninjas are cooler ninjas, and I have to be the best and coolest ninja if I want to be Hokage and get Sakura-chan! And I want to get there as fast as possible! And I have Tenten here willing to teach me how to use a sword... But would that be better then spending time with Ero-sennin learning more ninjutsu?'

So again, two Chibi-Naruto's appeared over each of his shoulders, one armed with the White Fang, the other with a toad on his head. And again, they were having a loud screaming fight on what Naruto should do.

If people actually knew this was how Naruto's mind resolved his more complex problems, most would cease to be surprised at his personality.

But something different happened this time. The two Chibi-Naruto continued to fight, and Naruto continued to think and debate, when a stray thought passed through his mind.

'Training with Ero-sennin is always such a pain in the ass, though... I wonder if spending time with Tenten would be better?'

As Naruto thought that, the fight wasn't going well for the Sword-Naruto. After all, Ninjutsu-Naruto had received some rather focused training of late, so naturally he was the stronger of the two at the moment.

But as Naruto began to think about the pros and cons of his two teachers... Something happened.

Out of nowhere, a third Naruto appeared and blind-sided the Ninjutsu-Naruto. The third was smaller then the first two, and certainly looked weaker then them. Pale, drawn, and weary, with only one thing to really distinguish him from the other two.

The Sword-Naruto took the opening, and stabbed the Ninjutsu Naruto. The three Naruto's froze for a second, before Ninjutsu-Naruto poofed and disappeared, leaving behind just the Sword-Naruto, and a Naruto with the word 'Sex-Drive' written across the forehead. Then those two disappeared, leaving behind a Naruto who had decided that sword training was he needed right now, and that maybe spending time with a girl who wasn't Sakura wouldn't be so bad.

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"Where the hell is that idiot? I've been waiting here for an hour... Why hasn't he come here for ramen yet?"

Sakura was pissed. More then pissed. The idiot boy was wasting her precious time! She was wasting quality Sasuke time on Naruto, and did he even try to appreciate it? Hell no! He didn't even show up for it!

'Ohhh, he's gonna pay for this!'

Sakura just sat, glaring, refusing to contemplate the idea of giving up.

Somewhere along the line... This had become a matter of pride. Pride in what, she didn't know. But she knew she needed to talk with Naruto about... Something.

Yeah! Talk with him! He was her teammate, right? So she should spend time with him, not that stupid kunai-throwing floozy...

Sakura shook her head. Where the hell had that thought come from?

She had been having thoughts like this a lot more lately, and it was really bothering her. Sure, sometimes she was mean to the boy, but she did like Naruto. He was a friend that Sakura knew she could count on, and knew that he was stronger then everyone thought he was.

That was really the crux of the dilemma... She was so used to having Naruto around, even if it was just him trying to go out with her, that his frequent absences of late just seemed... Weird... to her.

Now that it was missing, she realized how much his constant attempts at trying to win her favor meant to her. Her only other real friend was Ino, and maybe Sasuke, depending on how moody he was on any given day.

'I'm... lonely...'

And she knew why she was lonely. She didn't begrudge Naruto his training with Jiraiya. How could she? That was an enormous opportunity for the guy! But... He was in the village now. He should be doing team stuff, like missions and training and such.

'Not... training with that girl...'

Sakura began to growl a little at the thought, and then realized what she was doing.

'Why does this piss me off so much?'

And thus Sakura's thoughts were brought full-circle, not really getting her anywhere. Because she refused to admit to herself the real answer, that she was afraid that maybe she would lose her friend, and maybe more, because of this other girl.

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"Well, someone's eager for this mission... Getting all dressed up for something? Or maybe... Someone?"

"Shut up, Kankurou! Unlike you, I actually look good. Who cares if I want to make sure I look my best?"

"So it has nothing to do with that blonde brat who ignored you, hmm?"

Wind was in a rather shabby position at the moment. Their Kazekage was dead, a large part of their military killed. They owed Konoha a lot for not exterminating them, that was for sure.

So, it was decreed that a few teams would be dispatched to help out Konoha.

In another time, in another place, this would involve a running battle that ended at the Valley of the End.

Now? Team Baki was being dispatched to Konoha, to be used as needed for the new few months.

Temari turned up her nose.

"Oh, him? I had forgotten all about him. But now that you mention it... Well, he should obviously be shown what he's missing out on, shouldn't he?"

Before Kankurou could reply, Gaara appeared.

"It's time to go."

And the siblings picked up their packs, silently following the youngest, out on a trek to their temporary home.

Kankurou snickered to himself... He had seen his sister like this before. Whenever anything insulted her pride, she got all worked up and retaliated. Usually it had to do with someone insulting her skills as a ninja, or the fact she was a kunoichi, or something stupid like that. This was the first time it had ever happened over a boy, though.

He couldn't wait to see where this was going... He just KNEW he was going to get good blackmail material out of this somewhere.

But then Gaara turned around to glare at him, and Kankurou gulped, and promptly concentrated on the traveling at hand.

Gaara turned back around, and smirked to himself. That in itself would be a surprise to most, as Gaara usually didn't ever really smirk, much less grin or smile, or any other sign of possible enjoyment of a situation (outside killing people, of course).

Gaara had been thinking about what the Uzumaki kid had told him, just before the boy had managed to somehow defeat him. Gaara didn't really know what had caused him to lose, as he never even saw Tenzou during the fight, concentrating on the obvious opponent at hand.

After all, who would normally be considered the bigger threat- A human, or an enormous sword-wielding Toad?

The boy said that they were similar. Gaara figured out what that meant, after some deep thought. The guy was admitting to being a jinchuriki, as well.

And so Gaara began to research into whom exactly Uzumaki Naruto was. And he was shocked about what he learned.

There was a surprising abundance of information circulating about the boy of late. Gaara no longer felt ashamed to have lost to a guy who had apparently also defeated Orochimaru himself, along with some other A-Rank missing-nin.

He heard about the apparent romance that was going on between Naruto and that girl his sister beat up, too. Gaara wasn't one for romance, having no real experience with the subject. He just took a mental note that if he ever did decide to procreate, he should give his chosen woman some kind of trophy from a fallen enemy, or something.

Gaara shook his head at that... Even with his own limited experience, that didn't make sense. But apparently it was what he was supposed to do. Strange.

Gaara thought on the topic of possible trophies he might have already gathered, if he had known he was supposed to, and then brought his mind back to the matter at hand. He had decided that he would be a better brother to his siblings, as apparently caring about your family made you a better person, and let you fight off your biju easier, or something like that. It was what Uzumaki had told him at the end of the fight, and Gaara believed it.

After hearing the tail end of their conversation, Gaara decided that he would start his new life outlook by helping his sister win over Uzumaki. That's what good brothers did, right?

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3 hours later, and with the sun setting, Sakura finally called it quits. She had already had ramen for lunch, and a ramen snack... She didn't want to have ramen for dinner, too.

The dinner rush hadn't quite started yet, though, when three new people arrived at the temporarily deserted ramen stand.

And proceeded to outrage Teuchi with an absurd demand.

"You want me to do WHAT!?"

"You... You need to m-m-move your... stand."

Teuchi stood, bemused.

"And why exactly should I do that, Hyuuga-sama?"

Teuchi had seen a lot in his days as a ramen chef in a ninja-village. He'd seen people be set on fire, seen people run for miles on their hands, hell, he'd even seen a man eat his own head once! (Though Teuchi hadn't know that one was a genjutsu, it still made for a strange sight)

He had even been blackmailed and threatened a time or two before... But never by children.

Well, none of them actually looked threatening. The speaker, who Teuchi recognized as Hyuuga Hinata, certainly was trying, and failing miserably, at looking threatening. The girl couldn't project a threatening image to save her life... And the sake bottle she was clutching to her chest certainly didn't help her threatening image in the least.

One of her escorts Teuchi placed as Hyuuga Neji, who looked more bored then anything else. He certainly didn't seem to want to be there, that was for sure.

Teuchi wasn't quite sure who the youngest girl was, but she looked enough like the other two that Teuchi just figured she was one of their sisters. The girl, who couldn't be older then 7 or 8, was actually doing a more credible job of looking threatening then Hinata was. The fact that she was a cute little girl playing thug made him want to crack up at how adorable the whole thing was.

"Well, bad things will h-h-hic-happen if you don't..."

Hinata trailed off, and turned to look at Neji. Apparently, this was some kind of signal for Neji to do something, but the boy was doing his level best to just ignore the whole situation and wish it ended.

Then the littlest girl kicked Neji in the shins.

Teuchi nearly broke down laughing at that, as Neji turned to glare at her, and got into a staring contest with a girl-child half his age and height. But then he sighed, and apparently decided to play his part.

"If you do not meet Hinata-sama's demands, I will be forced to destroy your stand."

Neji spoke in a monotone, as if reading a script. He wasn't even pretending that he wanted to be here, or that he wanted to be doing this, but was apparently strong-armed into helping.

After speaking his piece, Neji stiffly walked over to one of the stools, and pushed it over.

This was followed by the enthusiastic little girl then kicking the fallen stool.

Apparently, she liked kicking things.

Teuchi sighed. 'This... This is the worst blackmail attempt I've ever seen.'

"So, what exactly do you want me to do?"

Teuchi decided to humor the children, who were apparently playing some kind of game, or something.

"I... I want you to m-m-move your stand onto the Hyuuga grounds."

At that, the stand went silent.

"You want me to WHAT?"

Hinata could see it, in her head. If Ichiraku's, arguably Naruto's favorite place in the world, were to move to her house, then Naruto would obviously have to visit her a lot. And then HER house would become Naruto's favorite place in the world. And then she could hug Naruto, and he would hug her back, and kiss her, and take off his pants...

Teuchi just continued to stare at the blushing girl, whose blush continued to grow worse and worse by the second.

Neji, wishing that he had never bothered reconciling with Hinata and that the girl was stil weary of approaching him, spoke up.

"Hinata requested it of Hiashi-sama, and he has agreed. The Hyuuga land is right next to the more expensive areas of the marketplace, making it a better location for a restaurant. It would be foolish of you not to accept."

Neji handed a deed over to Teuchi, proving his words to be true.

Why on earth did Hiashi agree to such a ridiculous idea as having a ramen stand on Hyuuga property, you ask?

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"So, if I let this ramen stand that you like be put on our grounds, you'll place you and your team on permanent guard of my private sake stores and stop that dastardly sake thief whenever you aren't on a mission, Hinata?"

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Hiashi was going to regret THAT agreement, for sure.

Teuchi weighed the issue in his mind for a minute or two.

But really, there was really only one answer to this he could give.

"I would be honored to move my stand onto the new property, Hyuuga-sama."

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Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Sarutobi sat within the Hokage office, chatting about old times and such. They were interrupted by the arrival of a messenger from Wind, giving to Sarutobi the details of the teams being sent to aide Konoha.

Right at the top of the list was the name of the Suna Jinchuriki.

Sarutobi sighed. He just knew that would cause him a migraine. There was no way he was going to let the unstable jinchuriki wander Konoha.

But then again... he knew Akatsuki was active. He had just been given Jiraiya's report on what had occurred in Tanzuki Gai. He knew that he couldn't let them get Gaara either.

'What to do, what to do?'

Sarutobi reviewed the facts of the situation. Akatsuki was out there. They were after the biju, thus they were after Jinchuriki. If they captured Jinchuriki, Bad Things happened. Thus, he had to keep Gaara safe. But, due to the whole attack and all, no one would really want Gaara in the village. So Sarutobi had to keep Gaara safe, while keeping him out of the village.

The obvious answer would be to put him in the care of one of his more competent ninjas, and frankly, the only people in the village who would be able to really stop an Akatsuki member were sitting in his office.

So he would just have to send them on a mission out of town, and send Jiraiya or Tsunade along with them.

Weighing it in his mind a bit, and with what he knew of both of his remaining former students... He decided that Jiraiya was the safer choice. Or rather, Sarutobi felt like Jiraiya was the one that he could actually convince to do it.

Especially as he happened upon the perfect mission to convince Jiraiya to take up this order.

Sarutobi's smile grew.

"Jiraiya, I have a mission for you. You are to take Naruto, along with one of the teams from Sand, and hunt down a man named Rokushou Aoi..."

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Four hours later, when Naruto finally arrived at Ichiraku's, a scream of anguish could be heard all throughout the village.

"CLOSED? ICHIRAKU'S IS MOVING? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Author's Notes: So I haven't written very much lately, due to some real life issues that killed my motivation. However, my muse is starting to return. And it also helped that I got a really nice review for this story yesterday. The reviewer put some thought into it, and motivated me to get out the next chapter. I'm easy to please like that : ). So thanks, JEHayes.

As for notes for the actual story… Well, the setup is laid. The raijin shall be the next sword taken. Girls are converging in on Naruto. And Naruto might start actually noticing other girls. Or maybe not. We'll just have to see.